A U.S. appeals court reinstated the most serious charge against alleged al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla on Tuesday, reviving a murder-conspiracy count that could send the former "enemy combatant" to prison for life. The government accused Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, with being part of a North American support cell that provided money and recruits to global Islamist extremists. A federal judge in Miami had dismissed the murder-conspiracy charge on grounds that it duplicated two other counts against him in the high-profile terrorism case, and therefore violated the constitutional ban on punishing someone twice for the same offense. The government appealed and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta reversed the ruling on Tuesday. It said that since Padilla theoretically could have committed one of the alleged offenses without committing the other, the charges did not duplicate.... http://news.yahoo.com

The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal confirmed Tuesday she will retire in September, frustrated that two of the three men most responsible for the mayhem in the Balkans during Yugoslavia's demise could end up going free. Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal's third and longest serving chief prosecutor, will be remembered primarily for overseeing former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's genocide trial, which ended before a verdict could be reached after he died of a heart attack in his cell in March. "After eight years, I have done my work. It's time for me to go back to a normal life," she told reporters. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Del Ponte said that in the dozens of trials she has supervised including 20 in which the defendants pleaded guilty "I never saw one who had real remorse." Expressions of regret were only designed to ease their sentences, she said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2835490

Washington's conclusion that Israel likely misused U.S.-made cluster munitions by firing them at civilian areas in Lebanon has brought new pressure on Israel to review its wartime practices. But the finding probably won't hurt U.S.-Israeli relations, officials and analysts said Tuesday, citing the countries' close military ties and shared interests. Dropped by planes or fired by howitzers, cluster munitions scatter bomblets over a wide area and are intended to be used against large concentrations of enemy combatants. Israel's use of the weapons in its war with Hezbollah guerrillas last summer provoked an uproar because bomblets hit civilian areas. Israel said it was attacking guerrillas using those areas as cover to fire rockets at Israeli cities a tactic that has prompted criticism of Hezbollah....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2835494

At least 36 Iraqi Shia Muslims have been killed in separate bomb attacks at the climax of the Ashura festival. Police said a bomb left in a rubbish bin in the centre of Khanaqin, a mainly Kurdish town north-east of Baghdad, killed at least 13 people. People had been gathering at a local religious hall for ceremonies marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson in 680 AD. An hour later, a suicide bomber struck in Baladruz, killing at least 23. Police said they were worshippers gathered outside a Shia mosque in the Dur Mandali area of Baladruz, east of Baghdad, when the man wearing a bomb vest detonated himself. Many of the victims were reported to be children. Ashura, the most important Shia festival, has witnessed serious sectarian violence since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6312489.stm

A macabre 1,700-year-old mass grave of people and horses, discovered in Normandy, poses perplexing new questions about the Roman conquest of France. Was there a small part of ancient Gaul which refused, Asterix-like, to surrender for 300 years? The grave site, from the 3rd century, which was discovered by French state archaeologists at Evreux, appears to contain ritual arrangements of human and horse remains. In one, a human skull is clasped between two horse's skulls, like the two halves of a giant shell.In Gaullish times, 300 years earlier, graves containing both horses and people were common. No such grave has ever been found from the Roman period, and even in the previous era, the remains were kept carefully apart.In the recently discovered grave, about 50 miles west of Paris, the bones appear to have been intentionally mixed. The skeletons of 40 people and 100 horses have been found so far....http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2190045.ece

An Australian psychologist charged with indecently assaulting a female patient told a court today that forcing her to wear a dog collar and call him master was within ethical guidelines. Bruce Beaton, 64, has pleaded not guilty in the Western Australia district court in Perth to four charges of sexually assaulting the 22-year-old woman he was treating for bulimia at his clinic in the neighbouring city of Fremantle between January and March 2005. Mr Beaton told the court he had resorted to drastic treatment because gentle methods were not working. He said he thought role-playing a dominant/submissive relationship would help build a more trusting relationship so he made her wear a dog collar and call him master, and he cracked a whip in treatment sessions....http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2001977,00.html